Card game



May 23, 1939.

`E. T, MCNANEY CARD GAME Filed May 28,' 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet l @www Patented May 23, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE l CARD GAME Edward Thomas McNaney, Catonsville, Md.

Application May 28, 1937, Serial No. 145,345

8 Claims.

The present invention relates to a card game adapted to be played by one or more persons.

The game is based upon the use of a plurality of perforated playing cards designed for superimposition upon indicia bearing base cards so as to expose various related portions of said indicia through the perforations and produce an intelligible aggregate of the elements thus displayed. The base cards may bear numerals, figures, symbols, letters, colors, and/or other desired representations, so that the characters exposed through the apertures of the perforated or playing cards may collectively produce a card hand, a word, a letter, a mathematical problem, or other desired composition depending upon the indicia appearing upon the particular base cards in use. A plurality of the playing cards are preferably dissimilarly perforated so that by Varying. their arrangement upon the base cards, the result exposed may be altered to produce a number of different combinations. It is contemplated however, that any number of such sets of dissimilarly perforated cards be employed to form a complete pack, in Which event, two or more cards will be identical.

Perforated cards have been previously proposed in the playing of games as will be exemplied by the patents issued to Cook, 1,271,856, July 9, 1918, Morgan et al., 1,527,059, February 17, 1925, Snelling 1,766,465, June 24, 1930, Hoke 1,887,203, November 8, 1932, Roland, 2,019,732, November 5, 1935, Brown et al., 2,060,973, November 17, 1936. In none of these patents however is the basis of the present invention disclosed, in that none of these games discloses a base card bearing a plu` provide a new and entertaining series of gamesy and elements therefor, which may be played by one or more persons, various modifications of which are designed to require varying degrees of skill and fundamental knowledge, thus adapting the game to players of various ages and interests. A few of the possible modiications have been depicted in the attached drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective View of a pack of cardsA suitable for any of the modifications;

Fig; 2 is a plan of a base card designed for a mathematical game, showing playing cards in position; f v

Fig. 3 is a plan View of a base card designed for a spelling game;

Fig. 4 is a plan of a base card intended for playing various of the ordinarily known card games; and

Fig. 5 is a plan View of a base card intended for a letter constructing game.

A plurality of playing cards 30, shown in Fig. 1, may contain any desired number of such cards, forty eight having been selected for purposes of the present description. These cards are provided with equal, but dissimilarly positioned perforations 32 constituting windows for registry with and exposure of the regularly arranged indicia borne by the base cards 34 shown in Figs. 2, 3, 4 and 5. The positions of these windows will follow a more or less regular order so as to 1 conform with` the positions of the representations carried by the base cards. As shown in Fig. 1, twelv-e such positions for the perforations have been chosen to correspond with the twelve positions presented by each group of characters appearing on the base cards. Each of these playing cards is provided with numerals in diagonally opposite corners to indicate the position of the perforation, with regard to the respective corners. Thus, the top card in Fig. 1 has its perforation' in position 2 with respect to the top edge and in position 11 with respect to the bottom edge. These numerals will aid the player in evaluating his cards without actually placing them in position on the base card. Accordingly, since there are forty-eight cards in all, a pack will contain twelve groups of four idential cards. From the description to follow, it will be obvious that the number of cards as well as the number and arrangement of perforations and indicia on the base cards may be Widely varied without departing from the scope of the present invention.

The base card 34 depicted in Fig. 2, bears four groups of single numerals 36 and one group of double numerals 38 for playing a mathematical game. The perforated cards have been shown in position in this gure wherein they conceal all but one of the numeral positions of each group so that by considering only the numerals exposed through the perforations, an addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, or any other desired mathematical operation or sequence of operations may be performed. In the present instance, ad-

dition signs 40 have been provided intermediate each pair of the rst four groups while an equality sign 42 appears between the last two groups. It is thus indicated that an addition of the exposed numerals of the first four groups is to produce the result exposed in the fifth group. The sum of the rst four exposed numerals, namely:

' numeral three instead of five, the sum would havebeen twelve, in which event the exposed upper numeral two of the last group could have been included to complete the exposed result of fourteen.

, It is contemplated that a penalty be imposed for requiring the use of the upper numerals, making it preferable to complete the sum with-- out them. It is also advantageous from a scoring standpoint to arrange the playing cards in their erect position, indicated by a suitable designation 44, such as the word Top. In the arrangement illustrated in Fig. 2, it will be noted' that the third card is inverted, thus requiring a deduction from the score attained by completing the problem.

It will thus be seen that by rearranging the cards from their erect to their inverted positions andby selecting any one of the cards to expose the sum indicated in the fifth group, a large number of possible problems and solutions may be possible with the same five cards. The manner in which the base cards and playing cards are to be dealt or distributed, the rules for scoring and the manner of playing are all subject to wide variations, subject to agreement in advance by a group of persons about to play the game.

In Fig. 3' there is shown a modified form of basey card intended' for use in playing a spelling game. As in the case of the numeral game, there are ve groups of indicia, each group. containing twelve positions, each position bearing a plurality of letters, eight such letters in each position having been selected for purposes of the present description.`

Upper casey letters 50 and lower case letters 52 are combined in each of the positions to form abasis for varying the score, and to increase the possibilities,y vowels have been provided in predominating numbers. The object of this spelling game is. to arrange the playing cards, 3.0 so as to produce the longest word or sentence by using as many ofthe upper case letters as possible. It is. contemplated,A that as many of the letters as are exposed,` upper case as well as lower case, be used, so long as they are selected in the order of the groups reading from left to right.k Thus for example, the five positions marked A in Fig. 3 may bef utilized to spell the word credential. The. score for such a result may depend upon whether the playing cards are in their erect or inverted position, the total number of letters employed, the number of upper case letters employed,v and the number of groups of indicia employed. Here. again, the rules and scoring may are provided withive groups of indicia, each letters.

group provided with twelve positions corresponding to the positions of the perforations in the playing cards. With the playing cards arranged to expose the spaces designated B in Fig. 4, the holder could declare a straight in a poker game and he would be entitled to a score in accordance therewith. The hands may be evaluated by taking into consideration the position of the playing cards, that is, whether they are inverted or erect, whether or not it is necessary to use a joker to complete thev hand, and the rules of evaluation of the particular card game will be taken into consideration.

In Fig. 5, a base card is shown which is intended to be used in the building up of block The twelve positions making up each group contain elements of letters, which, if combined with one another in the proper order, will produce letters of a varying number of elements; The object of this modification of the game, is to produce with a given set of playing cards, a block letter having as many elements as possible. Y

After the cards have been dealt or drawn, the players will arrange them, for example, rto expose spaces designated C in Fig. 5 of the drawings, the elements of which in combination, will define the block letter B. I-Iere again, the scoring willl depend not only upon the number of individual elements utilized in constructing a letter, but also upon whether the cards are used in erect or inverted position, and perhaps the time consumed in constructing the letter may be introduced as a factor.

From the foregoing description it will be apparenty that the game lends itself to a vast' nurnber of variations in the arrangement of the base cards as well as in the perforations and the playing cards themselves. Moreover, Vthe types of indicia represented on the base cards may relate to various related persons, places or things generally and still fall within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A game comprising a base card bearing a plurality of groups of related indicia and a plurality of cards containing dissimilarly positioned perforations for exposing certain of said indicia in corelated' relationship, each of said perforated cards substantially conforming in size and shape to, each of said groups.

2- A game comprising a base card bearing a plurality of spaced groups of indicia and a plurality of cards containing dissimilarly positioned perforations cooperating with said base card for concealing a portion of the indicia of each group and exposing other portions of said indicia in corelated relationship, each of said perforated cards substantially conforming in size and shape to each. of said groups. l

3. A game comprising a base card bearing a plurality of regularly arranged groups of indicia and a plurality of cards of similar size and shape containing perforations at different portions thereof for exposing certain indicia of each group each of said perforated cards substantially conforming in size and shape to each of said groups.

1. A game comprising a base card bearing a plurality of spaced groups of indicia, a perforated card for application to each group so as to expose a portion of said indicia, the perforations in said cards being dissimilarly positioned, the'indicia' of` the groups being mutually related so that certain exposed combinations produce deplurality of regularly arranged spaced groups of sired resultants, each of said perforated cards substantially conforming in size and shape to each of said groups.

5. A game comprising a base card bearing a plurality of groups of characters such that certain combinations of characters from the groups produce an intelligible aggregate and a plurality of cards containing dissimilarly positioned perforations for superimposition upon said groups to expose certain of said characters, each of said perforated cards substantially conforming in size and shape to each of said groups.

6. A game comprising a plurality of base cards bearing rgroups of related indicia and a plurality of cards containing dissimilarly positioned perforations each registering with one of said groups of indicia so as to expose only a portion thereof in corelation with exposed indicia of another group, each of said perforated cards substantiallyr conforming in size and shape to each of said groups.

7. A game comprising a base card bearing a related indicia, a plurality of cards containing dissimilarly positioned perforations shaped to conform to the group arrangement for concealing a portion of said indicia and exposing a portion in registry with the perforatons, each of said perforated cards substantially conforming in size and shape to each of said groups.

8. A group of game cards adapted for cooperation with a base card bearing a plurality ol' groups of indicia, said game cards having corresponding edges, each of said game cards substantially conforming in size and shape to each of said groups and containing a perforation for exposing certain of said indicia, said perforations being substantially equal in size and shape, the perforations of the respective cards being diierently displaced relative to corresponding edges of said cards, so that with the cards in superimposed relationship, there is a regular arrangement of the perforations.

EDWARD THOMAS MCNANEY. 

